Parents Pushing Their Young Kids to Be Trans Don’t Understand ‘a Child Is Not a Small Adult,’ Youth Psychiatry Prof Says

Parents who encourage their young children to become transgender “lack the understanding that a child is not a small adult,” Professor of Youth Psychiatry Riittakerttu Kaltiala at Finland’s Tampere University says.

In an interview with Helsingin Sanomat (“Helsinki News”), the largest paper in Finland and the only major publication free of political-party control, Kaltiala discussed youth transgenderism and her opposition to a push to allow minors to legally change their gender.

Four out of five children who identify with as opposite gender stop doing so by the time they reach adolescence, Kaltiala notes. What’s more, it’s normal – not a sign of being transgender – for children to ponder their identities, she says:

“The young person tries out different identities and is prone to suggestion…It’s normal in adolescence.”

But, media and social media have been indoctrinating impressionable young children with the falsehood that “their other problems also stem from a gender discrepancy and will be solved if others start seeing them in the right gender,” Kaltiala says.

But, that’s not true, because mental health “does not come from making others do and see what you want,” the professor says. Still, this media myth has contributed to a tenfold increase in the number of young people seeking to change genders, she adds.

Kaltiala also rebukes the myth pushed by media, social media, and transgender activists that unaddressed transgender inclinations make young people more prone to suicide:

“It’s purposeful disinformation, the spreading of which is irresponsible.”

…

“Mentally healthy young people who experience their gender in a way that differs from their biological body are not automatically suicidal.”

Kaltiala says that studies have shown that suicide is extremely rare among young people considering a gender change.

And, while even adults can make hasty decisions regarding gender reassignment, children and young people aren’t adults, so they need special protection from the notion that they can, or should, “immediately get everything they want right now.”

As The Daily Wire has reported, studies, both in the U.S. and abroad, have found that the risks of allowing minors to undergo gender transition far outweigh any potential benefits. But, while medical communities in other countries have taken corrective action, those in the U.S. stubbornly continue to support youth gender transition:

“Finland, like Sweden and England, has conducted systematic reviews of the available evidence on pediatric medical transition, as has Florida’s Boards of Medicine, with each concluding that the risks far outweigh any benefits. This resulted in the closure of prominent gender clinics, strict restrictions on the use of cross-sex hormones, and banning gender-related surgeries for minors. Italy, Australia, and Spain’s medical bodies have also recently raised similar concerns.

“Meanwhile, U.S.-based medical groups have used poor evidence to support their positions and have refused to conduct systematic reviews. Instead, they have ‘devoted themselves to promoting deeply flawed and ideologically driven research,’ according to Leor Sapir, a Manhattan Institute fellow who wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the rapid proliferation of the ‘transgender rights movement.’”

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